Echoes of Aphasia

Chapter 20: Alex, The One Who Brought My Son Home

I woke up around 5:20A.M the following morning. The first thing I did was to look at my phone. No new messages. Great. Looks like Hayden decided he really did not want to talk to me. It hurt, but I guess I had to get used to it sometime or another. Like I said, promises get broken.

I went to my kitchen and prepared myself a cup of coffee. Cade will probably take a cup of tea so I brew him some tea and leave it in the pot to stay warm. I was sipping on my cup of coffee when my phone rang. Unknown number. I never answer it when it's unknown, but something compelled me to answer it just this one.

“I'm assuming you want your son back. Do exactly as I say and you can have your son back, if you don't, you'll never see him again.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Meet us at Pumpkin Joe's in an hour. Alone. If you bring your cup friend with, then you can forget about finding your son.”

I immediately get dressed and exit my apartment as quietly as I can so as to not alert Caden that I have gone out. I nervously fumble with my car keys, and eventually I get the car started up and I'm on my way to the diner the man wanted to meet at. It's an old antique diner. Everything is still done old fashion and as casual as possible with baby pink and blue covering the walls. I go in and my eyes are immediately drawn to the beautiful boy sitting at one of the tables. His brown hair is cut short and his cheek bones are sticking out too far, but I immediately recognize him as my son.

Without thinking, I run towards him. His eyes snapped to mine and then I hear his soft voice say, “Mommy, you found me.” In that moment I truly experienced the feeling of aphasia. I was rendered speechless. I lost all ability to speak momentarily and I thought about how beautiful my boy still was and the fact that he was now in front of me for sure.

I threw my arms around him and held him closer to me while musing over and over again how much I love him and how much I've missed him. This is too easy, I think to myself. Why would they just hand me my son back after him being missing for months. While clutching him in my arms, I started to look around. Something felt off. Like this was some kind of trap. And I was right. As I continued to look around, I found one man particularly looking straight at me, but that's not what made me quiver in fear, no, it was the gun in his hand that made me freak out.

He made his way across the room, towards my son and I and then he slid into the chair on the opposite side of the table.

“So mommy has finally found her son. I'd hate to ruin the family reunion but we've got things to do.” he said with a sly grin on his face.

“What do you want? I don't have a lot of money to give you but I can make a plan if you will just leave my son and myself alone. Please.” I pleaded desperately weigh the stranger.

“I don't want your money. You can't give me what I want, but your boyfriend however, he can give me everything I need.”

“I don't have a boyfriend.”

“oh yes, that's right. You broke up with him because you're in love with his ex best friend.” he laughs at me and I stare at him confused. He can't even be talking about Hayds and Cade can be? They weren't friends, they couldn't be. From the day I met them they had some rivalry between them. I still couldn’t understand their relation to one another.

“I can see your pretty head working hard to process what I just told you. Yes your precious Hayden and Caden were best friends. They were disgustingly close, but then something happened that made them split. That's their story to tell. Anyway I need Caden to do me a favour.”

He didn't actually look so mean, now that I thought about it. He had sandy blonde hair that was neatly combed, green eyes and a slender figure. He wasn't as built as Hayden was, but I could tell he was still fit. His eyes were soft and kind, while his face tried to be hard and cold.